Stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas have no place on a university campus. And protesting students have no place punching vice-chancellors. Yet somehow it has come to this in South Africa, where continuing unrest over tuition fees has frequently boiled over into violence.

Academic programmes at some of the country¡¯s most prestigious universities have been derailed, while protesters demand free education and those charged with keeping universities open watch cross-eyed as inflation pushes their costs higher with no sign of a viable long-term solution.

As for the effect on those not involved in the demonstrations, one undergraduate at the University of the Witwatersrand said: ¡°I am not sure free education is feasible. And I am worried about attacks¡­It¡¯s inflicting fear in other students.¡±

In an analysis this week, we consider one of the less obvious ¨C but gravely serious ¨C consequences of the crisis, which has made it on to television screens across the world: the impression it gives of the future facing South African higher education.

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As Martin Hall, emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town, wrote in a recent article for ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ, ¡°universities are close to crippling deficits that must, with time, damage their feasibility. But the journey to any consensus is set to be long and difficult.¡±

This instability is likely to undermine South African universities¡¯ ambitions to build on their position as the continent¡¯s top-performing institutions by tempting back scholars who have pursued their academic careers abroad.

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The importance of stability, investment and academic improvement in making this happen was discussed at last year¡¯s THE Africa Universities Summit in Johannesburg, when Albert van Jaarsveld, vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, said that institutions could not rely on goodwill alone. ¡°The important thing is to create the kind of environments that allow people to come back in a way that supports career development and enhancement in a positive fashion.

¡°As long as there is a perception that circulation back to the African continent is somehow detracting from their career path, we are going to lose this fight,¡± he said.

The extent to which African researchers have looked for opportunities elsewhere is highlighted in a World Bank/Elsevier report from 2014, which found that 85 per cent of southern African researchers have published a journal article while outside the region.

This need not be a negative. The report points out that researcher mobility can be a good thing, with early career academics leaving the continent, particularly for graduate training, and then returning equipped with skills and international networks to pursue more successful research careers at home.

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But it¡¯s a battle at the best of times to convince a diaspora to return after they have enjoyed the milk and honey on offer in the most advanced university systems. Making the case for returning to a stricken system is harder still, and as van Jaarsveld said, it¡¯s no use relying on goodwill alone.

The solution, according to Hall, is ¡°a hybrid system of student ¨C and university ¨C funding, that combines fees with an extended and enhanced means-linked bursary and loan system¡±. But action is needed sooner rather than later because, as Hall says, South Africa¡¯s current disarray is the worst of all scenarios.

john.gill@tesglobal.com